TESTIMONIALS

“With her Second Wind individual leadership programme, Joanna Thompson offers a significant upgrade on conventional executive coaching. It’s grounded in contemporary academic research on how senior executives can draw on their strengths to operate at their best at work and in their personal lives, and delivered with the professional coaching and counselling skills of someone used to operating at the top table in a range of business environments.” Michael Morley, Chief Executive Coutts & Co (2009-2016); Chairman, Royal Bank of Scotland International

“I would happily recommend Joanna to anyone seeking to achieve a particular goal or improve their effectiveness in general.My sessions with Joanna definitely helped me up my game and secure the promotion I was after. Joanna is a great listener, and invested significant time in getting to know me and my specific situation: understanding and helping me to clarify my goals (both professional and personal), and helping me to focus on, and ultimately realize, the strengths and capabilities that will best serve me in achieving those goals. I greatly appreciated Joanna’s ability to sift through my thoughts to determine what has been helping and what has potentially been hindering my progress, and to then translate this into actionable steps to help achieve my goals. Joanna tailored her coaching to suit my personality, and was diligent in checking in with my progress – even after we had finished our series of coaching sessions. Within a year I had managed to secure the promotion at work that I had been seeking.” Tristen Huupponen, AQR, Sydney

“From the beginning I knew my time with Joanna was going to take me on an interesting and challenging ride. Prior to meeting Joanna I always felt that I was hitting an invisible ceiling in terms of my career, but I could never work out why. Joanna started by helping me to identify my strengths and learning how to improve them, instead of focusing on my weaknesses. Joanna’s kindness and persistence, as well as the insight and courage to ask the tough questions were invaluable to helping me recognise my career goals and placing strategies to achieve them. I have surprised myself with the things that I done since our sessions and will certainly keep in touch when I feel like I need a future ‘top-up’.” Lisa Elliott, ethinvest, Sydney

“Joanna was professional, friendly and engaging during our sessions and helped me navigate some difficult challenges in professional life. I found her session on strengths to be especially useful and would definitely recommend her services”. Lawyer, CBD Sydney

“Joanna’s experience, wisdom and encouragement were very useful in sharpening the clarity of what’s important to me and in seeing more possibilities. She helped with strategies to achieve my goals and I am delighted with my career move.” Holly Symonds, Sydney

“Joanna has been extremely helpful in terms of getting me to think much harder about the next steps in my life. She has an extraordinary ability to listen, absorb and clearly articulate the issues that we talked about together. This is an absolutely essential skill in her role as a coach. It meant that the searching questions she asked of me and the advice she gave was both challenging and thought-provoking. This is exactly what I needed. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Joanna and look forward to staying in touch with her in the future.” Mark Whitfeld, Director, finnCap Ltd, London

“When I was both selling a company and building a new venture I found Joanna to be an invaluable sounding board. She has a deep understanding of Corporate Finance and cross-sector knowledge of business models plus exposure to senior business leaders. Above all, I knew that I could trust her implicitly.” Mike Dowd, CEO SML,UK

“Having worked in the City of London for over 25 years, I knew the time had come for me to move on to pastures new. The thought had crossed my mind for many years, however taking the plunge and actually doing something about it seemed all but impossible. Then I engaged Joanna’s services. Her open, positive, “can do” attitude left me feeling motivated and full of enthusiasm, I began to realise I really could make the leap. The tools Joanna gave me and guidance on how to use them, not only helped me decide my new choice of career, they were invaluable during the transition process. Thanks to Joanna, I am now a qualified Soft Tissue Therapist, working in a Chiropractic Clinic – a much more fulfilled and positive person, and a million miles from the City of London.” Terri Scott, London

“I chose to work with Joanna as I wanted a coach with first-hand/high level global business experience. I consulted with her when I was launching my own business. Having been employed all my working life the company I worked for was unexpectedly heading into receivership. I had a finite window of opportunity that would disappear if immediate action was not taken. Partnering with Joanna proved to be enormously beneficial. She helped me think big and define my vision, to frame commercial negotiations and, above all, she has helped me appreciate my own value in the commercial world. She gave me confidence to “go for it”. I am so glad I did as my business is going from strength to strength and I love being my own boss.” Vivienne Ashleigh, Founder VR Sourcing, UK

“Joanna helped me determine my career objectives and navigate my transition into Private Equity. I found her strengths-based approach and her real commitment to helping me think strategically and tactically about my ambitions extremely worthwhile.” James Lumby, VP, Asanta Capital Group, London

“I have been a client of Joanna’s for over 10 years. She has earned her position as one of my most trusted advisors as not only does she have great market knowledge and insights but she has the courage of her convictions.I know that I am not just being told what I want to hear. Our relationship has both broadened and deepened over the years.” Marion Krimmel, Co-Head Multi Asset Allocation, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, Frankfurt

“I joined Investment Banking (Trading) in 2005 at a very male dominated time. Joanna (one of a handful of senior women) was quick to take me under her wing and acted as a confidante and mentor. It is sometimes easy to lose your way working 12 hour days under intense pressure but Joanna made time to guide me through and always offering practical advice. It is because of people like Joanna that I am still working in Investment Banking. She set a standard which I aspire to achieve. I missed Joanna when she decided to leave to pursue a career in Executive Coaching but recognise if she can help others like she helped me then she has done the right thing. I will always be grateful for the help she gave me.” Suzanne Webster, Director, Credit Suisse, London